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July 12, 2017

Georgia Hispanic voter turn out growing

July 9, 2017by Jill Nolin

The state’s Hispanic voters turned out to vote at a rate higher than the national average last fall, but their showing at the polls continues to lag significantly behind other racial groups within the state.

About 53 percent of Georgia’s Hispanic voters came out for the 2016 presidential election, which was up from 47 percent in 2012, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. Notably, about 73 percent of registered Hispanic women cast a ballot.

Nationally, nearly 48 percent of Hispanic voters participated, which was on par with turnout in 2012.

“Here in Georgia, we saw a dramatic increase, not only adding more voters but more voters actually going to the polls,” said Jerry Gonzalez, the association’s executive director.

Georgia gained more than 60,000 Hispanic voters since 2012, which was an increase of about 25 percent. Hispanics make up nearly 4 percent of the state’s registered voters, or a little more than 244,000 voters, according to the report’s count.

The report includes voters who identify as Hispanic when they register to vote or who have one of the thousands of known Latino surnames. The Secretary of State’s Office, which relies on what voters self-identify as, puts the number of registered Hispanic voters much lower.

Whitfield and Hall counties, in particular, saw “tremendous growth” since the last presidential election, the report said.

Hispanics now make up about 18 percent of the electorate in Whitfield County, which has the highest share of Hispanic voters in the state. They also account for about 11 percent of Hall County’s total voters.

In Whitfield County, about 51 percent of Hispanic voters cast a ballot last fall. That represented the largest jump in turnout from four years ago, with an increase of about 15 percentage points, according to the report.

The northwest Georgia county had the fourth largest growth rate since 2008, adding 3,091 Hispanic voters.

“This is just part of a growing pattern that we’ve been seeing,” said Trey Hood, a political science professor with the University of Georgia who provided voter turnout data for the report. “Hispanic voting strength is going to continue to grow in Georgia over the years.”

And unlike black voters, who tend to vote along with the Democratic Party, Hispanic voters generally lean left but may be “a little more up for grabs between the two political parties,” Hood said.

“I think both political parties are going to take more and more notice of Hispanic voters and try to bring them over into their coalition,” he said.

That’s what Gonzalez is hoping.

“It behooves candidates of all stripes to make sure that, whatever it is they are doing to reach out to their general electorate, that they take the Latino electorate as a viable segment of that,” he said.

“With elections getting tighter and tighter, a small percentage can certainly make a significant difference,” he added.

Hispanic turnout in Georgia may have surpassed the national participation rate for Hispanic voters in 2016, but it still fell behind the state’s white and black voter participation rates.

About 80 percent of white voters voted last fall, as did about 69 percent of black voters. Statewide, nearly 77 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the November election.

It’s not clear why Hispanic turnout tends to lag, Hood said. Language barriers, for example, could play a role. A new voter may also have come from a country where voting simply is not viewed the same as it is in the United States.

Gonzalez said it’s significant that the state’s Latino voting outpaced the national rate, even if it does trail the participation of other groups.

He attributed the higher turnout in Georgia to concerns about immigration. President Donald Trump made building a wall along the country’s southern border and mass deportations a cornerstone of his campaign.

“Clearly Latinos, like everyone else, think the economy needs to improve, and jobs are an important driver of what we want to see happen,” Gonzalez said.

“However, the issue of immigration is sort of like a litmus test for Latinos in how they see whether candidates respect them or don’t,” he added.

Gonzalez said he expects those concerns to continue to drive up turnout next year, when Georgia elects a new governor and their congressional representatives. Even though Trump will not be on the ballot, Gonzalez said the president’s policies will be.